So far, so good

I leaned heavily into event prep last week, and it felt good. I will be able to (hopefully) leave on Thursday feeling like the event is well in hand and where it should be to take off for ten days. In fact, the event is more set up now than it was a month later last year. I did the class schedule, have started the judging schedule, bought all but one or two flights, booked the hotel rooms, started the t shirts, ordered awards and wristbands and contest numbers, ordered the piano rental. I have to admit a smaller event makes for A LOT less work. Attendance is not great at the moment, but I’m still hopeful that last minute sign ups will kick in in August and flesh the event out decently. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to ask for 400 people in the next two months. I think that’s attainable. I keep thinking back to last year and how good things looked at this time - there were whispers of Delta, sure, but we were all still pretty confident. Then by mid-July rising numbers, plus the shock of discovering vaccinated people could still catch and spread covid, and indoor mask mandates, all were the death knell for me. By end of July it was over. In just 2-3 weeks everything did a 180. Of course, this could still happen. We could still see a scary new variant, or numbers could skyrocket. LA is in bad shape at the moment, and I read an article yesterday that said we’re in for a big surge at the end of summer again. You’d think with numbers going up now they’d be headed down in two months’ time. But who knows. I will say, though, that with all other events going on despite everything, I’m very confident we’ll go on. And it’s night and day working on an event you know will actually happen vs one that has a good chance of being canceled.

Tonight I have one last gig - one that involves long hours and fireworks, ugh - and then it’s just a three day stint of getting ready for our trip and praying none of us suddenly wakes up “with symptoms”. I had a high risk gig last night indoors and kept my mask glued to my face, kept away from everyone, and spent breaks outdoors. Let’s hope it held. I’m so sick of this.